Was it All Worth it?
by SassyRedhead
Summary: My first attempt at fanfiction, a Romy story, but they'll have to jump some hurdles first
1. Chapter 1

A/n: This is my absolute first fanfic ever, and I'm terrified, please be nice. I'm writing this story somewhat as a response to a few other stories I've read on here with similar plotlines, but I didn't like the way some of the characters handled themselves. If anyone recognizes the stories I'm talking about, don't get me wrong, they're great stories, and you should read them. They inspired me. ;-) I just decided I should try writing them my way. I'm a huge Romy fan, so be prepared for that pairing, although there will be some angsty turns in here. What fun is love without a few hurdles, right? Right.

Another note, I know that the accents may be badly done; I'd rather go light on the accents than overboard, that's just my tastes. Also they may be inconsistent; I never really appreciated how hard it is to write accents before this. I'll refer to the comics whenever possible, accent-wise.

* * *

The young mutant known as Rogue sat on her bed, nervously fingering her right glove. Remy had asked her to meet him in her room for a special announcement. It wasn't like Remy to be so formal, so she knew this was something big. Her thoughts raced over the possibilities. "Marriage? Nah, wayyyyy too soon. Moving in together? Maybe. He's pregnant? Now there's a possibility." Rogue nervously laughed at her own forced joke. Her nerves were eating away at her.

"Chere? You in here?" Remy walked into her room. "Good. I need to talk to you." Remy sat on the bed next to his girlfriend. "I know we said we'd work t'rough things, good and bad. But dere's been so much bad lately. We ain't good for eachother, you know that." Rogue stiffened. She'd been so nervous, but hadn't even imagined this could be a break-up talk. This was definitely sounding like a break up talk.

"Nothings happened we can't handle, sugah," Rogue murmured. "Ah'm willin' to work for us. Ain't you?"

"I'm willing to work, ma belle, but this is too much. All we do is fight anymore, disagree 'bout everything, hurt each other," Remy's voice grew louder and louder, until he exploded, "an' we can't even touch each other!" Rogue was crying softly until this last phrase reminded her of the kind of girl she was. She was not going to take this abuse lying down.

"Is that actually the problem, swamp rat? You bring up fightin', and makin' it sound like this is best fer both of us, but really you just want a girlfriend you can touch? Is this what this ALL boils down to? That's pathetic! I thought we were over this! Nothin's changin', if that's all you care about, you shoulda left a long time ago!" Rogue ran into the bathroom and slammed the door shut as hard as she could. "Now get outta mah room!"

Remy looked at the closed door. He'd come there tonight to break it off with Rogue, but didn't expect to feel so terrible. He got off the bed and slowly walked out of Rogue's room to his own, dragging his feet the entire way. There, he looked at the group picture he kept on his dresser. Everyone in the institute had a copy, and Rogue kept hers in the exact same spot in her room. The entire team was sitting on the steps of the Institute in costume. Rogue was on the lowest step, leaning on Remy, with an arm draped over her brother, Kurt. Kitty had given Kurt bunny ears, and Scott looked at them disapprovingly from the top step, unaware that Bobby was giving him bunny ears as well. Jean watched and laughed, Beast and the Professor sat to the side, Ororo stood behind Remy, and Logan rounded out the team by refusing to put out his cigar for the picture. Remy loved this picture, capturing the most loving family he'd ever known for eternity.

"Am I really leavin' all dis for a girl?" he asked himself, sinking on to his bed. "No, she's not just a girl. She's the woman I want to love but can't. She's the woman I'm not good enough for. Dis is for your own good, mon brave, for hers too. I'm a thief. Always will be a thief, and I can't change for her even if I want to", he reminded himself. "I'm not running away, I'm giving her a chance for a better life." Utter tripe, and he knew it. He was running away. Remy leaned under his bed to pull out a duffle bag.

* * *

The next morning, Storm and Kitty were on breakfast duty when Rogue came down. "Hey ladies, smells wonderful." Rogue greeted them.

"It should, it's taken us about an hour to make so far, and we're edging up on two with this perfectionist in the kitchen." Kitty rolled her eyes.

Storm laughed gently, "Kitten, it is not considered perfectionism to want to get the eggshells out of an omelet. Nor is it perfectionism to make sure it doesn't burn."

"Yeah yeah, whatever." Kitty said, good naturedly. "I still think the shells give it a much needed crunch."

Storm was about to fire off a retort when she got a good look at Rogue's face for the first time that morning. "Rogue, didn't you get any sleep last night? Pardon me, but you look terrible!"

"Ah got a little sleep. But Remy and Ah had a lil fight last night, well, not fight. Yelling match's more like it. Ah was tossin' and turnin' all night, lookin' forward to makin' up. Ah can't be angry at him for long."

"Angry at who?" Jean walked into the kitchen.

"Remy" Rogue replied. "We fought a lil' last night. Again."

Jean raised her eyebrows. "Oh…Is that why he left?"

Rogue jumped out of her chair. "Left? For how long? Where is he goin'?"

"Calm down, Rogue, please!" Jean soothed the wide eyed girl. "He told the professor he was taking some leave and didn't tell us where, we just assumed if it was an emergency, we'd contact him telepathically. I don't know how long. The professor said Remy seemed unhappy, he probably went back to New Orleans."

Rogue slumped back into her chair. "He said some hurtful things last night, so Ah said he shoulda left me. Ah guess he agreed."

"Rogue, he probably needed to clear his head, he should be back in a week, I'd guess." Storm spoke.

Kitty frowned. She wanted to help her friend, but didn't know how. "Don't worry, Rogue", she said, "we'll keep you really busy so he'll be back in no time!"

A/n: that's it for now, I have so much more respect for all you fanfic authors now that I know how hard it is. I know where I want to go vaguely with this plotline, but I'd still love suggestions and especially suggestions about a new title. Leave me a message in reviews!


	2. We All Care About You

**We All Care About You**

Storm's optimistic prediction of Remy being back in a week came and went. None of the rest of the team was that worried about him, but they were all worried for Rogue's sake. Remy had proven to be a loner before, and had even gone away for periods of time to be with his thief guild, but this was the first time he was essentially abandoning Rogue. For a while, everyone in the house kept Rogue busy, going out to eat, shopping, watching movies, training, anything to keep her mind off of her missing boyfriend. And one by one, they helped in any way they could.

* * *

The weather outside her window was sunny and bright. She could hear the laughter of Kitty, Bobby, and Kurt as they enjoyed the beautiful day. Birds were singing, and the flowers were out in full force, as if nature itself wanted to cheer Rogue up. Rogue pulled her curtains shut. She would blame Storm if she actually thought Storm was behind this, but what Rogue really wanted was a dark day full of thunderstorms, one that matched her mood, one that was violent and vicious. Gambit had been gone for two weeks. Two weeks of worrying like crazy, two weeks of crying her eyes out, two weeks of beautiful weather. Rogue lay back on her bed, eyes brimming with tears for the third time today already, when she heard a dull clunk. Leaning up to investigate, she felt an icy blast as Bobby Drake, aka Iceman, swooped in through her curtains. 

"You see a Frisbee come in here, Rogues?" He asked.

"Yeah, ovah there." Rogue pointed. She lay back down.

Bobby frowned. It wasn't like Rogue to wallow in her misery. For as long as he'd known her, she was the most spirited and spunky person he could think of. Before, when she and Remy fought, she seemed to enjoy the verbal spars, a chance to get out her aggression, and she was always back to flirting and making sarcastic comments by the next day at least. "Some of us were thinking about going out dancing tonight. You have to come."

"Ah don't hafta do anything." Rogue spat at him while rolling over with her face into a pillow.

"Yes, you do", Bobby countered, "because if you don't go, no one will be here to take care of you as you cry and generally make yourself miserable. We'll be too busy getting drunk and flirted with." He ended this with a quick grin. He knew she couldn't see him, but charm was never wasted on the ladies.

"Ah don't want to go dancin', Ah don't flirt cause Ah'm taken, an' I shouldn't get drunk cause then Ah lose control of mah psychic shields so all them voices in mah head are worse." Rogue murmured more to the pillow than to Bobby. It looked like she was determined to stay home by herself tonight.

"Rogues!" Bobby yelled with a smirk, "You used to _always_ go dancing with me, and you flirted your ass off every time. And you don't need to drink. Logan and I'll drink enough to make up for you too."

"Ah may have gone dancin' with you, but that was before…" her voice trailed off and she swallowed a sob.

"Before you met him" Bobby finished, sitting gently on the bed beside her, finally morphing back into the more human version of himself. "I know. He changed you a lot, Rogues, and that's not really a bad thing, but you used to go out all the time, flirt with anybody and everybody, you used to have crazy fun. When you met Remy, you stayed in more, became more introverted, you weren't any less secure, but he got rid of that party girl façade you used to wear."

Rogue turned around to face Bobby. "Bobby…" she started softly, with tears in her eyes, "You're drippin' on mah bed."

Bobby laughed. Here was that girl they all knew and loved. "Well, I bet my ice bridge is doing worse right outside your window, care to see?" With that, he picked Rogue up into his arms and carried her out to the window. Rogue was about to fly out of his arms, but she looked at how carefully Bobby had protected their skin, and realized that she had missed her friends these past two weeks. She had given into their ways of keeping her mind off of the situation, then had isolated herself when Remy didn't return right away. Maybe that wasn't the best move. Rogue wiggled out of Bobby's arms onto the ice bridge he had created to get the Frisbee in the first place, sliding down two stories to land safely on the grass below.

"You're looking pale, mein sister", Kurt greeted her. "Fun in the sun is a smart prescription for you."

"As long as you don't mind wrinkles and gross leathery skin from too much sun," Kitty interjected. "No one needs that." Rogue looked at her three friends and realized that she had been making herself so much worse by missing out on the things she loved, and silently vowed to keep her life going until Remy came back to her.

* * *

Rogue stared at her reflection in the mirror. She couldn't believe she let Kitty dress her up like this. "Why, oh why didn't Ah go to 'Ro or Jean? Why'd Ah let that little ditz dress me up?" True, Kitty was practically a genius, she had this great aptitude for computers and science. True, Kitty was only a few years Rogue's junior. No matter what, Kitty had an exaggerated idea of how people dressed up to go out at night, and in the interest of helping Rogue, had forced that idea upon her. 

"You look good!" Kitty had said. "You'll have everyone's eyes on you and you alone."

Now that Kitty was out of the room, though, Rogue washed off a good amount of the eye makeup, and changed her shoes. Other than that, the outfit wasn't bad. It was a black dress cut low at the neckline with a short skirt. She had gloves on, but her shoulders and neck were still bare. Rogue compromised by wearing a choker necklace and reminding herself to be careful if she danced with anyone. The shoes Kitty had picked out were basic black pumps, and that left her entire leg exposed, which was just a bad idea, especially since all the other X-women were wearing short skirts, it was an accident waiting to happen. The shoes Rogue picked out were high heeled boots that went up past her knee, leaving only a small stripe of leg exposed between the top of the boot and the bottom of the skirt. Rogue had learned from experience that stockings weren't much coverage from her powers, and made a mental note to be careful about that too.

"We're going, ladies", Scott yelled from downstairs. Rogue grabbed her ID and turned out the lights. She wasn't sure if they were only waiting on the girls, or if Scott was just calling everyone ladies, like in the military, but she didn't want to give them any excuse to say women take too long to get ready. She'd heard this Scott and Jean fight too many times already. Rogue paused a moment at this thought, and was surprised to realize that the thought of fighting, and the thought of Scott and Jean as a happy couple didn't hurt nearly as much as she thought it would.

"He'll be back any day now", she whispered to her closed door, and ran down the hall to meet the others.

* * *

By the end of the night, Rogue was sure that she had made the right decision about going out. She had gotten lots of offers of drinks and to dance from relatively handsome men. While they were confidence boosters, she had politely declined every one, deciding instead to just hang out with her friends. She had had two drinks without losing any control, danced with everyone in a large group, and every X-man had slow danced with her at least once, even Kurt, so she wasn't left out. He had taken her hands, smiled, and told her, "We all care about you. Remember that. We're your family. We love you." Rogue knew that when he said family, he didn't just mean the two of them and a shared parent. The team was a big family that looked out for all it's members. Rogue was a member of this family, and so was Gambit. No matter what happened, there would always be a place for each of them, and there would always be support for both of them.

* * *

Remy woke up suddenly, his sheets wet with sweat. He supposed he must have been having a nightmare, but he couldn't remember about what. He rolled over in bed, hugging a pillow like a man would usually hold a woman in bed. The way he wished he could hold Rogue right now. He had been gone for two weeks, and he didn't know if he was ever going back. 

A/n: Sorry about lengthy clothes description, which may be boring for some readers, but I really wanted to give a sense of how much control Rogue's powers have over her life, even down to the clothes she has to wear to go out. Also, I know these chapters are short, but I can update more if the chapters are shorter, and since my big pet peeve is being left hanging with a story I'm into, I'll try it like this for a while. Thanks for the reviews!


End file.
